Chapter 211: Heredity
Soon it was Tian Lei’s turn. Lu Jinzhao watched her leave the room. The window was not closed, so she could see Tian Lei’s back as she walked steadily toward the ancestral hall despite her tension.
Lu Jinzhao only glanced once before withdrawing her gaze, her attention more focused on the warehouse nearby.
The warehouse now held only three people, one of whom had already been to the ancestral hall. He had returned quietly, and Lu Jinzhao saw his relieved figure through the open window.
Since nightfall, fragmented words had come intermittently from the warehouse. Now, besides her sense of taste being worse than before, Lu Jinzhao’s hearing and vision were sharper than ever. She could hear voices from next door containing anxiety and confusion. After his teammate successfully completed the mission and talked with him, that confusion and anxiety gradually carried fear.
He learned further from the message his teammate brought back about the importance of the tablet.
After all, merely letting the tablet leave one’s body would summon a “ghost.” So what would happen to someone like him who had no tablet?
Xu Ming felt uneasy. For two consecutive nights, he had been unable to sleep. Now, watching another teammate return alive from the ancestral hall—looking somewhat disheveled but still clutching the tablet tightly—he felt even more uneasy.
The mission made his teammates realize just how important the tablet was, but he did not have one.
His gaze kept falling on the tablet tightly gripped in his teammate’s hand. Perhaps his eyes betrayed something, as he soon felt a warning gaze.
It was a warning from the first-class member of the team, whose look toward him had gradually become unfriendly.
Xu Ming felt some indignation inside but still lowered his head and restrained his gaze.
He had thought about getting a tablet from somewhere, but people from other cities seemed to know exactly who from their city had not gotten one. Even if they were unsure who from their own city lacked it, they tacitly kept vigilance toward him.
He really had no good opportunity to act.
Before this, he had not considered targeting someone from his own city. After all, they all knew each other, and barring accidents, they still needed to cooperate fully on this platform. Plus, with the first-class member’s existence, he had some concerns.
But now he could not worry about that anymore.
He did not know how much time he had left. Tonight’s mission hit him like a blow to the head, making him realize he should no longer follow human rules and morality. He was about to die; he must resort to any means necessary.
Xu Ming silently lay down on his bed. He no longer looked at his two teammates but silently curled up his body, facing the wall surface.
His teammates no longer offered him useless words of comfort. In the not-too-big, not-too-small warehouse, the atmosphere seemed to fall into stagnation.
Soon, his teammates also lay down. The lights in the warehouse were not turned off. Xu Ming could hear his teammates occasionally turning over. For some reason, he had a premonition that the other was actually not asleep.
Why not sleep?
Hadn’t he slept a little last night?
Was it because… he did not trust him?
Perhaps his mindset had changed. A flood of uncontrollable thoughts began to emerge in Xu Ming’s mind.
These thoughts guided him into falling into some dark abyss.
And he was powerless to resist.
The village at night was very quiet. Even the chirping of insects only added a bit of atmosphere unique to the countryside. But Xu Ming, lying on the bed, could not gain even a shred of sense of security from this atmosphere that should have been peaceful.
The chaotic thoughts in his mind had actually calmed somewhat with the passage of time. Perhaps because he had thought too much and gone too long without sleep, Xu Ming felt his brain somewhat muddled, like a lump of paste. Besides those extreme thoughts, thinking about other things always found his train of thought blocked, making it feel very strenuous, and thus he did not want to continue thinking further.
Even so, he noticed some things.
Was this warehouse so cold last night?
The season at this platform was clearly not winter.
The quilt covering him also felt somewhat uncomfortable, always seeming a bit damp. Was it because it had been piled up too long and gotten damp?
He involuntarily wrapped the quilt around himself tighter, trying to gain some warmth this way. But… whether it was an illusion or not, he felt that after wrapping the quilt tighter, the damp feeling was more pronounced, even carrying a slight sticky sensation.
His breathing began to feel not very smooth, perhaps because the quilt was wrapped too tightly?
In his muddled state, Xu Ming felt unusually fatigued. His eyes could barely stay open, but the difficulty breathing instinctively made him want to break free from the “restraint.” He began trying to push away the quilt wrapped around him with his hands, but the process was not smooth. The quilt became very slippery, and his hands also lacked strength.
The quilt wrapped tighter and tighter, tight like a python coiled around his body. Xu Ming felt he could no longer breathe…
Large drops of cold sweat appeared on his forehead. His face began to turn blue and purple. If anyone saw him, they would discover that he was clearly just normally lying on his side on the bed, with the quilt ordinarily spread over him. Yet Xu Ming seemed bound by something, his throat throttled. His eyes tightly closed, his expression extremely struggled, while the rest of his body remained eerily calm.
Strange.
A strange scene that no one noticed was unfolding in this warehouse.
Xu Ming’s consciousness gradually blurred.
His thinking was like being locked in a narrow, oppressive, dark room. He could only instinctively struggle, completely unable to recall the abilities and items he possessed as a passenger.
But his struggle did not last long. Gradually, he could no longer exert force, and his breathing weakened. Xu Ming belatedly realized he seemed about to die.
The feeling of helplessness flooded his mouth and nose like tidewater. The last trace of light vanished before Xu Ming’s eyes.
The next second, a violent gasp, like one from a panic attack, suddenly rang out in the quiet warehouse.
The sound came precisely from Xu Ming’s position.
He abruptly opened his eyes. The sweat on his forehead had soaked his pillow. Now, with his eyes wide open, he looked around in shock and uncertainty.
The heavy panting continued for a while. Only then did Xu Ming’s oxygen-deprived brain slowly resume functioning.
He had not yet extricated himself from the fear of moments ago. His body, hidden under the quilt, was trembling uncontrollably.
He… was still alive?
Xu Ming sensed two gazes falling on his back. It was his two teammates observing him with vigilance, wondering why he had suddenly made such a terrified breathing sound.
Xu Ming had no time to pay attention to them now. His mind was entirely on everything he had just experienced.
—A dream?
No, not a dream. He must have been targeted by a ghost!
